In today’s connected world, the chances of a hackers targeting any organization are extremely high. There are monetary and reputational risks if an organization do not have an appropriate cybersecurity plan. Cybersecurity is about making sure organization’s data is safe from unauthorized access or damage from both internal and external bad actors. The goal of any cybersecurity strategy is to ensure confidentiality, data integrity, and availability. The most common cyber security threats all organizations face are phishing, ransomware, and business email compromise attacks.
Phishing emails are sent by hackers, and they pretend to be from someone you trust like your bank or your local council or even a colleague. Their goal is to convince you to do something which they can use to their advantage, such as click on a link to a malicious website or provide login and other personal details. Phishing emails are one of the main methods hackers use to deploy ransomware and business email compromise attacks.
Business email compromise attacks target employees within an organization by sending spoof emails which fraudulently represent senior colleagues or trusted clients. The emails use social engineering techniques to issue illicit instructions, such as approving payments to hackers’ bank accounts or releasing confidential client data that can be leaked on the Dark Web.
Ransomware’s primary aim is to extort money from organizations and individuals who are infected. It achieves this by encrypting files that are saved locally and on shared drives connected to affected machines and then threatening to leak stolen confidential information onto the public internet. Once files have been encrypted, the user is notified and asked to pay money, typically in cryptocurrency, to obtain a key that will unencrypt the files.
To maintain organization’s operational integrity, a CEO with the assistance of his/her CTO needs to minimize these risks as far as possible when it comes to pernicious threats. A cost-benefit is a great way to assess projects because it reduces the evaluation complexity to a single figure. Risk management is all about managing uncertainties. When it comes to preventing costly cyber-attacks, there’s significant value to be found in investing upfront to avoid paying a higher price later.
Most of the larger organizations have cybersecurity roles within the organization to drive Cybersecurity initiatives for the organization under the guidance of their CTOs. Smaller organizations usually implement cybersecurity strategies by employing outside cybersecurity firms.
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